Awesome, welcome to another episode of the eCommerce Lifestyle podcast. You can find it at eCommercelifestyle.com. Anton Kraly here. I am the host of the show, and today, I wanted to talk about what's happening in our businesses, and what I'm focused on this week in the office.

I literally have in front of me, three different whiteboards, where I'm mapping out the game plan for myself, and my team, most of which is still in Bali, but I wanted to share some of what's happening.

So first off, if you're an eCommerce seller, you already know this, but this is the busiest time of year, right? Between Black Friday, and Cyber Monday coming up, obviously we have our biggest sales period of the year. So currently we are planning, and executing on our different promotions, on our different brands.

Good news for that is, we've been doing it so long, we actually have templates, and systems where we just have to swap out some dates, make some new images, make sure the best-selling products really are our best-selling products, and it doesn't take too long, but that's one thing we're working on.

Also, you probably know this if you're following Drop Ship Lifestyle on Facebook, or YouTube, but we just closed Drop Ship Lifestyle for the next, I don't even know how long, because I'm currently redoing all of the content in there, making sure it's up to date with what's working now, and what we're focused on, moving into 2019.

Now, speaking of what we're focusing on, moving into 2019, that's probably the most time-consuming thing, that I'm actually putting my effort into, right? That's why I'm at the office today. That's why I'll be here all week. That's probably why I'll be working from my home office at night. It's because we're doing a lot of different things with different brands we have happening right now.

So, I'm currently building out a new eCommerce brand, and for anybody that was in Bali last week, you heard me talk about this a little bit. A part of what we're doing with this new brand, even though drop shipping is gonna be one of our methods of order fulfillment, which that's what drop shipping is, that's not everything, right? That's a piece of it, and the big thing that we're making a push for with this new brand is, content. So, creating content that's actually gonna help us to not only rank organically on Google, but more importantly, just have a visitor, and customer base of people that really come to us for a reason, and not just because they saw us on Google product listing ads. Well, I'll still get those people, still invest heavily into ads there. I'm gonna focus a lot on content with this.

Now, the issue that comes up, that maybe you're facing, or you will face if you're launching a new eCommerce brand, or really any brand is, how do you make content right out the gate, that's gonna get eyeballs on it?
Once you're established a little bit, like and you have a following, they'll pretty much watch whatever you put out, as long as you are providing value, but at first, that's not how it works, so what I've been doing this morning, on all these whiteboards, is mapping out what type of content can I start with, for this new eCommerce brand, right? For our new physical product brand?

Specifically, I'm thinking about our YouTube content. YouTube is one of the only platforms that I consider really an asset, a platform that we link to, so when we're using things like Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, and Pinterest, we link from them. So, we post content there, but then we link to YouTube, or we link to our blog, or to our website, and it's because that where you really can build the strongest following. That's where people are gonna engage with you for longer. That's where you're gonna find your dream customers, okay. And that's where again, people are gonna become part of your brand, rather than just a customer.

So, I'm thinking, what can I make, being that this new website, for our new physical product brand isn't even live yet, right? The website's still under construction. We have some of our social set up, but a have some basics means that I'm running, to get lots of engagement. We're getting that, but now that it's time to pull out a camera, or pull out the phone, and make a video, what am I gonna talk about?

I could talk about different things within the industry, but I want to talk about the things that get the eyeballs. I want to talk about things that will build us a big YouTube following for this physical product brand, fast.
So, the key here is, to actually focus on what people are already talking about, and I don't mean just topics. That is important. You should focus on topics that people are talking about, but more importantly, you should focus on products, and brands.

So, I want you to think of this almost as reverse influencer marketing. So, instead of going out there, and looking for people that already have followings ... At the stage that I'm at now, or maybe where you're at, where it's a brand new business, you can't really approach them, and offer them a bunch of money, and offer them an affiliate program. Again, we don't even have our website live yet.

So, what we're trying to do though, is tap into other people's influence, by building something on our own. I'll give you a perfect example of this, right? Let's just say for example, I was gonna build, I don't know, something that has to do with ... Let's just say for Drop Ship Lifestyle. Let's say Drop Ship Lifestyle YouTube channel didn't exist yet. It does. If you're not subscribed, go to YouTube.com/dropshiplifestyle. But, let's say it didn't. I would want to make videos, using other companies' brand names, so that people that are looking for that stuff, and people that are watching videos with other companies' brands can find us.

So, just got this little humble brag here. Thank you to Russell Brunson, and ClickFunnels. Just go this 10 figure award. We finally broke 10 million with ClickFunnels, but let's just say I wanted to make a new Drop Ship Lifestyle channel. The first video I would make, would probably we something like unboxing ClickFunnels' eight figure award, right? Something like that, because people are already looking at ClickFunnels stuff. They have 65000 users. Those people are gonna see that. They're gonna then find my brand.

So, we're doing something very similar with our new physical product brand, and what I'm doing, and this is what I've been doing this morning, is actually going to a lot of our competitors' websites, and a lot of other retailer websites, and I'm ordering their products.

Now, what's good about this new industry I'm getting in, this new eCommerce industry, is that the products are demonstrable. Is that how you say it? Demonstratable, demonstrable? I can actually use them. I could actually show them off. I can do those unboxing type videos. I can do, here's how to make something with it, here's how to set it up, here's how to take it apart, so that's what I'm gonna be doing.

So, the method that I'm going with costs money, right? So, no getting around that, but again, this isn't like drop shipping 101, this is like, I want to build a brand, that in 12 to 18 months, every single person on the internet, that's interested in this industry, knows who not just I am, but who my company is.

So again, what I'm doing is, buying these products. Average order value is about $200 at this point, and they're gonna start coming in next week, to our office here, and I'm gonna start making those videos. Again, pulling out the camera, I'm gonna unbox them. I'm gonna use them. I'm gonna test them.

When I do that, that's all gonna become YouTube content. So, right now, our YouTube channel for this new brand, has zero subscribers, right? If I just published a video with my thoughts on something, it probably would still have zero subscribers. Maybe a few people will trickle in, but now that I'm gonna be saying these other company names in the titles, and the subject lines, unboxing manufacturer name, product xyz, again, those are things that already have millions of products, and units sold, so people are already looking at that type of content on YouTube for example.

That means, when I put my content up there, if I do my titles correctly, my tags correctly, my descriptions, if the videos are actually engaging, and good to watch, they're gonna get eyeballs on them from day one. And, if they're better than what's already out there, they're gonna get the most eyeballs, and they're gonna overtake the videos that are already there. So, that's one of the easiest ways to start with content. Again, but the products yourself, make a video of you, or someone else, if you're not comfortable on camera, either unboxing them, using them, whatever.

You might be thinking, okay, well what if I sell products that are crazy expensive, right? What if my average order value is $5000? I'm not gonna order a whole bunch of competitors' products, and unbox them, and use them.
Well okay, there's ways to get around that too. The easiest thing to be able to make videos like the kind I'm talking about, with those super high ticket products, would be simply to find out what trade shows, and what events your manufacturers are going to, and go to them.

Show up, bring your camera, make videos there. We used to do this all the time, back in the day, and it works really well. It's a great way to get unique content, put your unique spin on things, and again, build your brand by making content that people actually want to see, because nobody else has it.
That's a big key here, it's unique to you, and to your brand. So, once you have those eyeballs, then you could push them to different offers, maybe to your Black Friday Sale, or your Cyber Monday Sale, so that works great.
Another thing you could do if, let's just say your products are mid-tier pricing, and let's say that you ... I don't know, you live in a different country, or there's no trade shows in your industry, or you just don't want to go to them. Well, just reach out to your sales reps at different brands, the brands you work with, and ask them if they have any exchanges, or any returns for some of the most popular skews that you're already selling.
Because, the truth is, a lot of them do, and a lot of these big warehouses that our suppliers have, they have products that have been sitting there for months sometimes, sometimes a year, that someone returned, that maybe wasn't packaged correctly. So, it's not broken or anything, but it's just taking up dead space in their warehouse, so reach out to your sales rep, and say, "Hey, can we make some kind of deal? If you have anything available, can you ship it to me? Can I buy it from you at less than cost?"

And a lot of times, again, they'll talk to their warehouse manager, but if they're just looking to get this stuff out, maybe you can even get it for free, and just paying shipping. So, that's one great way to do this.
Another way is, if you have been selling for a long time, you have those strong relationships with your suppliers, then maybe they'll just ship it to you on consignment basically, where you can sell it, and then ship it to your customer. Or, maybe they'll just ship it to you, and then you can do your thing with it, and sell it on Craigslist, or whatever, put it on your website, as an open box item.

So, there's not one fixed way to do this. The point basically is, there's a lot of different ways, and if you want to make it work, you could find a way. The way that I'm doing it is, just actually outright buying these products, but that's because the front end value again, of the products that we're gonna be selling is, closer to $200. So, we have a much higher customer lifetime value, but up front is not that big, which is why I'm willing to spend the money now, buy these things, and then after I use them, I'll probably put them on Craigslist, and sell them locally, right?

What else can you do? Another way, if you're thinking, well, I still don't want to do that. What if I contact my suppliers, and they say, "We don't have any open boxes, or exchanges, or returns." And what if you don't want to lay out the money?
Then, maybe give up, because that's enough options. But, if you want one more, call your suppliers, and if you live local to any of them, a ton of them have things set up in their warehouses, or in their showrooms. Maybe you could just go there with your camera for a day, go on Craigslist, post an ad in whatever city you're in, and say, "Hey, I'm looking for a videographer." Seriously, it's ridiculously under-priced, for a high quality video. Maybe a 100 bucks, you go to a warehouse with a videographer for a day, film a bunch of video, maybe open some of the packages there, maybe interview your sales rep, or some people at the company. Again, that's how you get content that people actually want to see.

Because, the key here is, we're not just thinking, what do I want to talk about today? We're thinking, what are people actually looking at already? What products are people already buying? What products is there a space for us to make unique content for? Those are the ones that you go after.
And again, that's exactly what we're doing right now, with our new brand, and that's why I wanted to share this today, because I have basically been hitting up Amex pretty hard this morning, going online, and buying all these products, and I know it's gonna make a big difference, and I was stuck.

Even last night, I was thinking okay, I want to start pushing YouTube for this new brand. What am I gonna do? It was tough. I couldn't think of anything. I know I could make a quick video, selfie style video, but that's not gonna get views. So, had to take it to that next level, where tapping into what's already there.
Again, think of it as, influencer marketing, but by leveraging brands that already exist. The one thing I'll say also with these brands, when I'm doing these videos, I'm not gonna be saying anything specific like, "Go here, and buy this." Or, I'm not gonna be saying, "Don't buy this." Because, we're not gonna be selling them at first. We're just building up our audience, so when we have offers, they will convert.

So, you could just say things like, "Go to our website.com for more information." Or, just leave it as is. What we're gonna be doing for our call to action is, subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we're gonna post regular videos like this, every single week, so the point is not always convert directly to a sale, especially when it comes to branding for the long-term, and again, having the focus of being the number one player in your industry, which is exactly what my goal is, and our goal is with our new brand.

So, hope you found that helpful. I'm gonna wrap up this episode of the eCommerce Lifestyle podcast. I am gonna get back to online shopping spree, and buying all of these products, and I will talk to you all in the next episode.

By the way, if you haven't heard them all yet, go to ecommercelifestyle.com, click on episodes. You could find all the episodes, links, and show notes there. Thank you everybody.